a) Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a trinocular tube which can be adjusted in a desired manner within a determined angular area to achieve ergonomically favorable viewing angles in the eyepiece.
b) Description of the Related Art
When observing and documenting objects through a stereo microscope, it is desirable that the angle of inclination of the inclined binocular eyepiece can be adjusted as desired within a limited swiveling area in order to realize an ergonomically favorable viewing angle in the eyepiece.
DE 26 54 778 and DE 37 18 843, as well as brochures and sales literature by Nikon, Leica and Meiji, disclose swivelable binocular tubes for stereo microscopes which allow an ergonomically favorable viewing angle to be adjusted, but which do not have an integrated connection piece, e.g., for cameras for photographing objects. These brochures include the P-BERG and SMZ “swivelable binoculars” by Nikon, the “ErgoTube” 10 445 822 by Leica, and the “ErgoBinocular head” MA 749 by Meiji.
However, stereo microscope tubes with integrated connection pieces for cameras have only one tube with a fixed, non-adjustable eyepiece viewing angle. Examples of such stereo microscope tubes include the SZX-Tr30 “Trinocular Tube” by Olympus, the 50% “Trinocular Video/Photo Tube” 10 445 924 and the 100% “Trinocular Video/Photo Tube” 10 446 229 by Leica.
Also, DE 35 08 306 describes the possibility of deflecting the beam path to a connection piece for cameras also for standard microscopes without a stereo beam path. For this purpose, the defection is carried out by means of a mirror which can be added to and removed from the respective beam path and which is arranged in front of the tube optics and in front of the deflecting element for adjusting the viewing angle.